Replacing /
Repairing
Wooden Boat Frames

The
frames of a wooden boat should be considered as part of her backbone.

When doing any restoration or repairs, checking
and
overhauling the backbone should have priority over any other joinery
work.

Apart from determining the shape of the hull, the framing carries much
of the
loading from the keel upwards through the planking as well as
transverse loads,
especially amidships, over engines bays, centreboards, and maststeps.

Steaming.

Steaming has
successfully been used in many boat building yards for many years.

It is an effective way to
produce curved timbers using a
minimum of lumber.

However for the amateur
builder or restorer it has quite
a few disadvantages.

Firstly the steaming
process is dangerous, that steam
is hot.

The apparatus required, the
steam box, the seam
generator and all the piping is complicated.

The temperature is fairly
critical especially during
the last part of the process.

Over steaming will ruin the
structure of the wood.

Even normal steaming breaks
the wood down chemically.

The timber needs to be
green, the kiln dried lumber
normally found in wood yards these days is not suitable.

If you steam one rib at a
time you will have a long
wait between each, if you steam a batch then they will all have to be
put in
place very quickly, before they cool or over steam if left in the
steamer.

The wood could be just boiled rather
than steamed but
this again poses the problem of suitable apparatus.

I have heard of someone
using a hot air blower after
first oiling the wood, this might be useful for bending specific
areas.

You also need to bear in
mind that different woods vary
in their ease of bending when steamed.

Hardwoods such as elm, oak
and ash react well to steam
bending but many types of softwood are not suitable.

Here is an interesting
idea using a wallpaper
steamer.

The time needed in the steamer
will depend on the
thickness of the wood, about an hour for every inch or 2.5 cm.

I am perfectly aware that the majority of Wooden Boat aficionados are sensible folk.However, I need to point out that I am an amateur wooden boat enthusiast simply writing in order to try to help other amateur wooden boat enthusiasts.And while I take every care to ensure that the information in DIY Wood Boat.com is correct, anyone acting on the information on this website does so at their own risk.